Hoping my D gets a good feel for the campus, the students and the vibe! It seems like such a wonderful option for her.
Please come back and post about your experience, good and bad. We are several states away, so getting there is a big investment of time and money, but hope to visit in the next month or two because UAH is still in the running for DS. Enjoy your visit.
My D visited recently and enjoyed sitting in on a class. The kids welcomed her, joked with her, and happily included her in their collaborative classroom work that day.
She also met with a faculty member in her proposed major - which went really well. She hadn’t applied for housing yet, but was told by one person she should because it was first come first served on preference (guaranteed to give her someplace to live but not necessarily her top pick).
The campus was pretty and the food was good. Parking didn’t seem to be as much of an issue as on many other campuses.
We saw a sample dorm room, checked out the bookstore and the library, and people-watched in the union.
In retrospect, we all would have liked to see the campus rec center.
I was surprised that with so many engineering majors that the clothes washers/dryers on campus aren’t set up with an app so the students can see when they are free or finished or whatever.
Overall, a positive impression.
Oh! And something we were told is that D could do her course registration BEFORE orientation. This surprised us. They offered to let her go to orientation right before school started because we live far away (relatively speaking). We were concerned she wouldn’t get her schedule, but they said she could register online. ! Who knew.
Hi all!
We are back after some delays due to weather (had to fly back up to the northeast during this week’s winter storm). But our visit to UAH was very informative and far beyond our expectations.
Our D did an overnight visit in the dorms with a sophomore who is local to the area (this really helped my daughter who wanted to get a feel for being OOS). The dorms are all quite nice and my D loved the fact the they are all singles (within suites) as she really likes her sleep and enjoys some quiet time each day. She felt all of the people were very welcoming as they took her around that night and most of the next day when she was not occupied with classes (more on that below). She continues to text and snapchat several of them–which I think is terrific.
The campus is definitely spread out but walkable (it takes about 15 minutes to go from end to end at a reasonable pace). Thye are clearly putting lots of money into redoing green areas (landscaping) and generally upgrading the campus. It will be beautiful with all of the flowers, etc out in about 6 weeks.
The food is fine–but the only cafeteria is on one side of campus (over by the honors/North/Central dorms) and not next to the majority of academic buildings. This is not a huge concern, but means that students with tight schedules may need to rely on the food court for some meals (Charger bucks accepted there, so again good). Plus since there is only one cafeteria we can see how students may want to have a meal somewhere else during the day. The cafeteria does not do boxed/bagged lunches for students to take to class (we asked), but there is plenty of wrapped fruit in the cafe that works for a grab and go.
Classes: My D is an aspiring biology major with plans to attend medical school–so not an engineering student. She sat in on an anatomy and physiology class, a Spanish class (her intended minor), and met with the interim Dean of the College of Science. (She also met with her preferred club on campus–Helping Paws). She really enjoyed the classes and felt the professors were engaging, funny and knowledgeable. We were very impressed with the effort that UAH made to have her experience some aspect of all her desired pursuits while there.
After classes we made a point to stop by the pre-professional office (who would be helping her with medical school curriculum and applications) and met a student nearly identical to my D (biology major, Spanish minor) in the process of reviewing her med school apps with the advisor. Over the past few years, UAH has had a 100% med school acceptance rate–something my D was very happy to hear.
Overall we liked the school’s campus, student body and academic vibe. We are still a bit concerned that it is a bit smaller than my D wants (UAH is just over 9000 total students right now–to be capped at 10000 in the next year or two) and that because of the emphasis on academics (and the prevalence of hard core engineers–40%) that the social life is a bit lacking. But D is firmly keeping UAH in her top 3–and says she can definitely see herself there.
Not sure this is where she will end up–but it is a very nice option to have!
Good luck to all still considering UAH–and feel free to ask any specific questions!
Sounds like you guys had a good experience! I took my son down in November and he loved it… he has decided to attend in the fall! We are from PA, so it is far, but it is a great fit for him and with the excellent scholarship, we won’t mind spending the money to fly him back and forth. He is majoring in electrical engineering and so far has been accepted to 11 schools, but at the end if the day, UAH checked all the boxes! I wish your daughter the best of luck in making her decision.
@KristyLizz same here - we’re in Va Beach, but with the scholarship the flights aren’t a problem. S19 has decided on UAH for electrical engineering. We REALLY loved campus when we were there last year. Planning to go over spring break to tour the area, since time was tight when we did our official visit.
We just decided to fly my D19 down from Alaska during (our) spring break—the Charger Distinction scholarship makes it an amazing deal, and we have family nearby, so if it really is as good as everyone has made it sound, we may be putting down a deposit next month…
Your visit sounds like you really had a good immersion into the UAH culture.
My student uses the dining options all over as well as the Caf and then supplements with a stash of groceries, they certainly have not gone hungry.
We too are from a distance, we live in Central TX, I am always watching airfare for a deal!
My student is also in the pre-professional group as they were considering med school (medical examiner) but I believe they are going to stay the course of History/Art history - Applied as an astro-physics major, then switched up to History/Biology for med school and is now thinking of History. One of these days perhaps they will find something and settle LOL, meanwhile, I am thankful we are not spending much on the undergraduate degrees as they will most certainly need to go on to be employable in the arts.
Just returned from a visit and the only downside is it was rainy and foggy. Came away impressed!
DS is interested in engineering and had requested to meet with a professor, an engineering student, sit in on an engineering class. They created a schedule that accommodated all of that in addition to the regular student tour (about 1 1/2 hours that goes to library, dorm, student union, etc. If DS decides to commit to UAH, because we are a few states away and would not attend incoming student orientation until right before fall semester would start, we also were told class registration can be done early online. DS asked at the end of the day if he could sit in on a Calculus class because he is not sure if he should enroll in Calc A or B (he has some AP Calc credit). They set that up for him the next morning and the teacher introduced herself to him after class and offered advice,
I expected to see more students milling around and groups of students in on campus activities but it was a fairly quiet, calm environment. Maybe it was the weather or just that I am used to larger campuses. I did miss a more high energy vibe.
Food was good, but, I think if DS goes here, he would opt for a dinng plan with more dining dollars and less card swipe (all you can eat) to allow more flexibility in where he could grab a meal.
Saw blue bikes all around campus which are free for students to to use to get around - nice touch. Also liked the tutoring and support services they have (DS needs to maintain 3.0 GPA to keep scholarship)
The oldest, dated building we were in was, unfortunately, the Engineering Dept. and while there are some building plans to fix that, not sure when that would happen. He was impressed with the teachers and student he met but didn’t get to see any labs.
The school is getting a new President this year who, hopefully, will continue making improvements to grow and maintain an active, on campus life (to get away from that commuter school history) and attract out of state students.